


Survivor's Guilt

by syusuke



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Hatake Kakashi Is Trying, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Kakashi has a plan, Self-Sacrifice, War Arc, What-If, it's tagged explicit for violence, the gore is very specifically about damaging eyes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:28:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28015470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syusuke/pseuds/syusuke
Summary: What if Kakashi came up with a different plan in the fight against Madara? What if they all knew they couldn't beat him, but there was another way.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 48





	Survivor's Guilt

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by the wonderful PeacefulDiscord!  
> Thank you for your patience ^^

This plan had one enormous weak point. If Naruto failed on his end, it would all be inconsequential. But it was the only plan he had and Kakashi was ready to trust Naruto, to risk it all. If anyone could convince Obito, then it was Naruto, not Kakashi. He’d seen the hate and the drive for revenge. Obito would never listen to him. So Kakashi would help Naruto, whatever it would take. He had to do this. He was the only one who could.

Kakashi put up the arrogant front of Hound, twirling a kunai in his right hand, when he addressed Madara.

“Oi, stop toying with my soldiers.”

Madara kicked shinobi out of his way as if they were mere flies. He stopped and turned at the shout though. His rinnegan fixed Kakashi with interest. Kakashi felt it wander up and down his form with scrutiny before a wide grin split Madara’s face and he approached leisurely.

“And who are you? You think you can win against me?”

Kakashi took note of the allied forces falling back. There was enough space to use long range jutsu without endangering them now. 

He held his head up high and ran his left hand through his hair nonchalantly. He knew he had Madara’s attention. Kakashi cracked his neck, throwing the full force of his killing intent at Madara as he did.

“Maa, I'm the commander of this army. Are you afraid of a real challenge?”

Madara threw his head back in a fit of laughter. Everyone watched as he put his gunbai down and grabbed a kunai from the closest corpse. He looked at it skeptically as if such a weapon was beneath him, twirling it a few times. Then he looked at Kakashi again, one eyebrow raised expectantly.

“Let’s dance!”

Even with the mangekyou active Kakashi had a hard time dodging Madara’s strikes. Luckily, it was only for show. Kakashi saw Madara’s grin widen as he sunk the kunai into Kakashi’s shoulder and he saw his chance. He focused his chakra, holding Madara’s stare, grabbing his armor, and yanked at him as suddenly and forcefully as he could.

“KAMUI!”

From one moment to the next, the sounds of battle vanished, and Kakashi lost his balance. He tried to catch himself, the immense chakra drain making him dizzy, but fell to one knee anyway. Still he allowed himself a quiet moment of victory, smiling behind the mask.

Suddenly he was pulled up abruptly and dragged closer to Madara. He forced himself to maintain eye contact as Madara’s spinning rinnegan narrowed at him. The pupil moved swiftly from side to side, then it went wide in surprise and fixed on Kakashi again.

Kakashi just stared back. He got him. He dragged Madara into Kamui and there was no way he could escape. Kakashi had successfully removed him from the battlefield. 

He created an opening, a chance for the alliance.

* * *

“Where are we? What have you done?”

This place felt odd. Every clatter of his armor echoed eerily loud. Madara couldn’t sense another presence anywhere. There wasn’t even a hint of water or wind either. It couldn’t be genjutsu, not against the rinnegan. This was real, yet somehow off, as if they weren’t on earth, as if- Madara stared at his opponent so intensely, he almost looked through him. His voice came out as little more than a hiss.

“Kakashi of the sharingan- You!”

The Hatake had the audacity to laugh. This was Obito’s friend, the one with his sharingan. That meant this place had to be Kamui. Another dimension - an eternity away from the war! Outrageous! This wouldn’t do! He had to get back. If he had his other rinnegan it would be simple. But now, there was only one way out.

This left him with a simple choice. He could force the Hatake to use kamui or he could take the eye - at the risk of damaging it - and use it himself.

He lifted the Hatake a little higher up and punched him square in the jaw. The impact sent him flying with a satisfying crack. Madara watched with morbid fascination as blood soaked the mask and turned it from blue to almost black. He wanted to get back to the battlefield as fast as he could, but this man outsmarted him and he was willing to grant the Hatake a bit of his time. There was only one way this would end and that was with the Hatake begging for death.

The Uchiha were genjutsu specialists after all and Madara was no exception. Even better, he knew a thing or two about his opponent. Obito never did shut up about his old team. The medic he had a crush on and described in excruciating detail, the sensei Madara had seen as Edo Tensei and Obito grew up by his side. There were quite a few gruesome nightmares he could conjure with these players, enough to break anyone’s spirit. Especially since he could control the flow of time with his genjutsu. But first, he’d show the Hatake just how far out of his league he was. It shouldn’t take long.

“Get up! You wanted me all to yourself. So fight me!”

Madara waited just long enough for the Hatake to stand. Then he rushed in, all weapons forgotten. He was the ultimate weapon himself after all. He didn’t need a blade against a mere child! It was more interesting this way.

This shinobi was fast. Very fast. It reminded Madara of another white-haired man. Maybe Obito wasn’t exaggerating. Madara parried a flurry of blows that actually forced him back a step. Hatake’s use of taijutsu and clones was quite masterful. Not wasting any chakra.

The Uchiha caught two shuriken mid-air, throwing them right back, but the Hatake disappeared in a puff of smoke, the shuriken hitting only his empty vest. 

Madara heard loud screeching and looked over his shoulder. He tried to side-step, but the chidori still tore through his arm. He’d never seen an attack like this before. More on instinct than with conscious thought, he crashed his head into Hatake’s, stunning him.

Madara didn’t bother moving out of range. He healed his arm calmly, never looking away from the man taking uncoordinated steps away from him. 

The Hatake could never beat him, but he was skilled enough to make this entertaining. So what if he held back a little? He could use the rinnegan and end this. Genjutsu was easy and fast. This was so much more satisfying though. Madara heard the bones cracking as he rammed his elbow into Hatake’s side, drawing an instinctive gasp and with a well-placed kick to the jaw, sent him flying again. 

Hatake stayed down, coughing up blood. The small drops were the only thing breaking through the monotony of the grey around them. It was almost absurd, how Madara could tell by the shallow breaths that at least one rib was broken. Hatake didn’t try to get up again. Yet- what Madara sensed in his chakra was not the despair of defeat. The man was calm, almost content. This did not add up at all, so Madara decided to tease a little.

“Giving up? Oh, but we’re not done!”

The Hatake turned his head, mangekyou spinning. The audacity! Madara was almost amused, intrigued enough that he allowed the genjutsu to hit him. Not that it would do any harm.

Madara saw the blonde boy shouting at Obito, and saw Obito surrounded by the former Hokage. He saw Obito waver under the eyes of his sensei, saw him listening to Hashirama. And then Tobirama appeared behind Obito, thrusting a blade through him, before scattering into hundreds of explosive tags. The genjutsu ended with a loud explosion, fading to black.

Madara blinked once. How foolish to use his one opening to send Madara a message that wouldn’t change anything. It was simply wishful thinking. He eyed the Hatake curiously. It surprised Madara that he even felt a little sorry for him. All that misplaced hope, it was such a waste.

“That is not the truth. Obito understands our goal.”

The Hatake was sitting up now, he held a kunai in his right hand, bringing it up to his left eye. He was shaking ever so slightly and then he brought up his other hand aiming for the hilt.

But Madara was too fast. He grabbed the hand, stopping the tip of the kunai just a hair’s width from destroying his only way out. 

He did not expect the Hatake to move forward. 

Madara let go of the hand, taking a step back. Completely bewildered by the action. The man gagged, clearly in pain, and pulled out the kunai. The sharingan was a bloody mess. 

He hadn’t expected that. The shinobi of this time had all seemed too soft for such an act. And yet, even though the Hatake hissed in pain, he managed to ban any hint of it from his whisper.

“The alliance wins. Without you on the battlefield, they win. If Naruto fails, the Hokage will do what is necessary.”

As much as he hated to admit it, Madara was speechless for a moment. Then he grabbed the Hatake and pressed a glowing green hand to the damaged eye. 

Madara spoke with urgency, wary of what this man might do next.

“YOU! You will bring me back. Or I swear you will curse the day you were born.”

There was a hint of mischief in the grey eye and Madara was almost certain the man was smirking. This was not surrender. It was _spite._

“No. I won’t. And Obito won’t come for you either. Nothing you do to me can change this. You are trapped.”

Madara crumbled at the sudden kick to his stomach. He had been too focused on saving the sharingan. When he looked up again, the Hatake had torn out the freshly healed eye of its socket and crushed it in his hand. The blood seeped through the glove, slowly dripping to the ground. Madara could hear every single one shattering apart on the floor. Slowly they combined to a puddle, dulling the sound. The impacts were still magnified tenfold by the utter emptiness in this dimension. Madara stared, completely mesmerized by the finality of it.

It was gone. IT WAS GONE! His way out of here was gone!

He couldn’t get out of here on his own. 

With every passing minute Hatake’s scenario seemed likelier. Obito wasn’t showing up and kamui was an ability unique to him. Maybe if Madara had both rinnegan there was a way, but the left one was still with Obito.

Madara would prefer to work on a way out of here, but he couldn’t think of anything. 

He clenched his fists tightly and stalked towards the other man. Madara had to snap out of this. Everything was better than inaction. Madara zeroed in on the Hatake. The brat forced him to stay here. He would pay the price in blood and bones. 

There was no more reason to hold back. Hatake didn’t have the sharingan anymore, Madara didn’t need him alive. He didn’t need any part of the brat. He tore into him with abandon. Every crack and gasp for air only spurring him on further. Madara could feel the bone split on a particularly forceful punch into Hatake’s gut, giving way where it shouldn’t. Good, another rib.

But then the brat stopped _fighting back._ He just took the beating. Of all the infuriating things he did, this was the most insulting. A warrior did not _stop fighting._ A warrior stood his ground! So Madara moved on from taijutsu and spit a fireball at him. Surely, he’d fight back against ninjutsu! He saw the Hatake form signs reflexively, but then stopping himself. 

Those were the first screams he gave Madara, he was writhing on the floor frantically trying to put out the flames, the stench of burnt flesh filling Madara’s nose. 

Madara stilled. He took in the situation. He was trapped in this dimension. Obito’s sharingan was beyond healing, destroyed and when he threw his senses out again as far as he could, there was nothing. No signs of life, nothing that contained chakra. He didn’t know if he could jump dimensions with one rinnegan. The risk of getting lost in the wrong dimension was high even with both. Here, Obito would find him. 

By his feet the Hatake was trying to breathe desperately in between harsh coughs. Maybe the man knew more. He had come up with this plan to trap Madara, didn’t he? Was it a desperate last resort or did he research the rinnegan? He did fight Nagato... 

* * *

“What are you hiding?”

Kakashi could only make out a silhouette above him. Long hair, like a coat, like Jiraiya. 

He smiled weakly as he thought of the sannin. 

Every breath hurt and he wasn’t sure if he’d cough up his lungs first or pass out from the pain. But it was okay. He did his part. He trapped Madara Uchiha and destroyed the only exit. He would gladly give his life to keep him here.

Kakashi had no chance of killing this man.

He would die here. 

Just as he should have died so many times before. 

He had no regrets.

Obito’s image flashed through his mind and for a moment, he thought that his old friend did look similar to Madara. Then the image faded and he was staring at Madara again, face twisted into an ugly grimace of barely controlled rage.

He shouldn’t anger him even more now, should he? But it was too easy. Maybe Madara would kill him faster, if he lost control. Worth a try at least.

Kakashi coughed, spitting out the remnants of his burnt mask. He searched Madara’s eyes and forced a cocky grin on his face. 

“Maa, you hit like a genin.”

**Author's Note:**

> I loved coming up with the scenario. Writing it was.... challenging.


End file.
